Loch Laxford SAC Site Condition Monitoring for Reef and Inlet Habitats

A 2009 baseline survey for monitoring Annex 1 marine habitats at the Loch Laxford Special Area of Conservation. The project established 135 video stations in inlet and bay habitat and 11 relocatable transects spanning littoral and sublittoral reef and sediment biotopes. The work was carried out by Scottish Natural Heritage, as indicated by the title, and aggregated by the Government Digital Service on the eu_open_data platform.

Use Cases

• Establishing a baseline for future ecological assessment based on the described video and transect surveys.
• Identifying habitat deterioration over time based on the repeated monitoring approach.
• Judging the current condition of littoral and sublittoral reef and inlet habitats as described in the project purpose.
• Analyzing the biological and environmental diversity of qualifying SAC features based on the representative sampling design.

Strengths

• Provides a defined baseline from 2009 for longitudinal comparison.
• Survey design includes 135 specific video stations and 11 relocatable transects for structured sampling.
• Focuses on protected Annex 1 habitats (reefs, inlets and bays) within a designated SAC.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Data format and file structure are unspecified, requiring manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Scottish Natural Heritage (implied by title), aggregated by Government Digital Service via eu_open_data.

Collection Method

Site condition monitoring using video stations and relocatable transects.

Time Range

Baseline established in 2009.

Freshness

Baseline from 2009; subsequent survey dates unknown.

Geography

Loch Laxford Special Area of Conservation, Scotland.